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Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow is an old stand by diagnosis used to describe and explain chronic and typically activity-related pain in the elbow joint and surrounding region. While structural reasons for this condition do exist, many unresolved cases are caused by simple ischemia of the affected muscles, ligaments and tendons in the mid arm. Other names for this syndrome include lateral elbow pain or lateral epicondylitis. Diagnostic conclusions based on chronic elbow symptoms sometimes use the words elbow tendonitis or more commonly, elbow tendonalgia.

What is Tennis Elbow?

This condition was first associated with many tennis players, hence the nomenclature. However, lateral elbow pain is surely not limited to tennis participants and actually affects a great many people of all backgrounds and activity levels. The diagnosis has been expanded in recent years to include virtually any elbow pain, on the outside of the arm or interior of the joint. The cause might be blamed on the bones, the joint, the ligaments, the tendons or more commonly, a combination of all of the above. While some cases of lateral elbow pain are obviously due to structural injuries or severe repetitive strain conditions, most are idiopathic. Ischemia can create the exact same symptomology as a structural concern, without any evidence of anatomical damage or injury. This is surely the most common type of elbow pain and is especially prevalent in people who do not have obvious signs of significant elbow injury from years of constant abuse.

Tennis Elbow Treatment

As with most other possible psychosomatic pain syndromes, elbow pain is generally treated conservatively at first. The usual modalities include pain management drugs, physical therapy and activity avoidance. While this helps some patients, a great number go on to require more drastic therapy methods, such as injections and even elbow surgery. For patients who do need these invasive treatments, curative results are quite good. However, in cases where the pain is being driven by a psychological symptom imperative, the condition generally returns in a new location or sometimes in a completely different symptomatic expression. The lesson to be learned is that psychosomatic pain CAN NOT ever be truly cured using a physical treatment modality… It can merely be relocated or changed to a new agonizing complaint…

Tennis Elbow Advice

Last year was been a real trial for me. I experienced a breakdown of my economic bottom line and also suffered some set backs in my personal life. I think the economy has played a big part in the suffering experienced by many people and I have definitely seen an increase in psychosomatic pain syndromes due to these factors…

Well, I, like you, am not immune to psychologically induced pain. I began to experience inner and outer elbow pain last spring, which I attributed to a martial arts injury. The pain did not resolve and I soon considered the possibility that it was psychosomatic and related to internalized stress and anxiety. Once I made this connection and applied the usual principles of knowledge therapy, the elbow pain vanished for good. This was a blessing, since my doctor did not like the look of it upon examining me and began to lay the groundwork for eventual surgery even during the first consultation…

I love proof positive that a great number of seemingly structural (and positively diagnosed anatomical) pain complaints are really simple psycho-emotional expressions. Now, if doctors would only think of this first, before they cut into patients…

Tennis Elbow to Back Pain Home 7/15/09 Revised 1/20/10